Way back a hundred million years ago, when Mr. SGCC and I were first married, we received a copy of The Silver Palate Cookbook as a wedding gift. It sat proudly on our orange crate bookcase alongside The Joy of Cooking and The Betty Crocker Cookbook, also wedding gifts. That bookcase made quite a statement paired with our dining room set consisting of a card table and four metal folding chairs. (Did I mention that we were poor as dirt back then?) Anyway, whenever I needed some culinary inspiration, I’d reach for Sheila and Julee’s wildly popular and creative tome of elegant entertaining to get me started.

The Silver Palate is one of the top 10 best-selling cookbooks of all time. Sheila Lukins and her business partner, Julee Rosso, wrote it in 1979, two years after they opened one of the nation’s first gourmet takeout shops of the same name in New York City. The book helped demystify and popularize gourmet cooking for millions of home cooks upon its publication in 1982 and continues to do so today. It is considered THE American cookbook of the Eighties. I didn’t know anyone who didn’t have a dog-eared, sauce-splattered copy of it in their kitchen arsenal. The recipes were innovative and accessible at the same time, using unique combinations of ingredients and advocating rich and bold flavors with a Mediterranean flair. read more >>

Hello and welcome to SGCC! I’m Susan, a professional writer, food columnist, recipe developer, wife, mother, daughter and sister, who used to be a lawyer in a previous life. My love of food comes from a long line of wonderful and creative Italian home cooks who didn’t always have a lot, but knew how to make a lot out of what they had. I hope that you enjoy yourself while you’re here, and visit often! read more >>